


Nicky and the woman at the grocery store

by PunxatawnyPhil



Series: Old Guard Fics [3]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Declarations Of Love, F/F, Fluff, Grocery Shopping, Grocery Store, Immortal Husbands Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Love, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Older Characters, Queer Themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:40:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25678243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PunxatawnyPhil/pseuds/PunxatawnyPhil
Summary: Nicky meets an old woman at the grocery store and convinces her to follow her heart.
Series: Old Guard Fics [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2076066
Comments: 6
Kudos: 130





	Nicky and the woman at the grocery store

Nicky and Joe had always done the shopping together. That's just how it was. From the first time Nicky volunteered and Joe insisted on coming with him. No one minded, and the two men liked the time alone.

It was during one of these times that Nicky encountered an interesting woman. He had been looking for a specific soup on the shelf while watching Joe and the elderly woman next to him out of the corner of his eye. Another older woman apparently wasn't paying attention and bumped into him.

"Oh, I'm sorry dearie, I'm more clumsy than my husband trying to fix something!" She said, picking up some things that she had dropped.

"It is okay miss, it was an accident." Nicky said calmly, his accent as thick as ever.

"That's a lovely voice you have, where are you from?" The woman asked.

"Oh, thank you! I am originally from Italy." He explained with a warm smile, glad to be reminded of his home.

"My husband's father was from Italy. One of the most annoying people I have ever met. A close second to his son." The woman scowled slightly before smiling up at Nicky.

"You speak of your husband as though you do not love him. Why is that?" Nicky inquired, wondering why anyone would subject themselves to being married when they had no love for the other.

The woman went quiet for a moment and Nicky panicked. "You do not need to tell me miss, I am sorry if I overstepped." He added quickly.

The woman nodded. "No no, it is fine. I do not love my husband. I guess it is more obvious than I thought." She chuckled. Her face was a mixture a laughing and sadness that he often saw on Andy when they told stories about Quynh.

"Why are you married if there is no love between you?" He asked, not baffled at the idea of it, but wondering the exact reason.

"Oh, you are too young to understand. You may thing less of me." The woman said with a slightly sad tone.

"Trust me madam, I am older than I look." He assured her.

"Well, the truth is that I do not love my husband. I love that woman over there." She pointed to the woman next to Joe, who was now looking at produce.

It dawned on Nicky. This woman was like him. He grinned. "But that is wonderful! Is gay marriage not legal in America now?" His head cocked to the side.

She sighed wistfully. "It is, but with all the hassle of divorcing my husband, explaining to my four kids, and planning a wedding, we might be dead and gone before we reach the altar! So what's the point!'

Nicky shook his head. "You have the privilege of living in a country...and a _time_ , where you are aloud to marry whoever you love. If you truly love and cherish that woman and are ready to tell the world that, I say you should do it."

The woman looked sad. "You do not know how difficult it is and will be for me. You are young and have no struggles like mine. You have not seen the hardships that have come to people like her and I." She sighed once more.

Nicky shook his head. The woman had no idea what he had gone through over the millennium that he had been with Joe. "As I said, I am older than I look. And I do know your struggles. I am deeply in love with the man next to your love." He nodded towards Joe, who grinned at him before turning back to focus on feeling which tomatoes he could use.

The woman's mouth formed an 'O'. "Oh! That is amazing for the two of you!" She said with a grin.

"For two people of the same sex who look and act like him and I do, it is always a struggle. But we do it anyways. I would move mountains and die my final death for that man. He is my everything." He paused. "Now I know that I am not exactly a poet, and can not express just how much I love him, as words are more Joe's department, but everything I did manage to say is the whole truth. You deserve to be happy my friend, so fight for it, like him and I do." His voice softened at the end, hoping she would take his advice.

"That is sweet, truly. It inspires me. Thank you dear, for reminding me that love is worth fighting for." She lightly hugged him for a moment.

"I see you made a friend _Nicoló_ " Joe said from behind them as the woman let go, Nicky's name rolling off of his tounge.

"Ah, I did. This is...actually, I do not believe I caught your name. I am Nicky, and this is my _heart_ , Joe." Nicky grinned at the way Yusif said his name, but got caught up on what to call Joe, because boyfriend, partner, husband just didn't make his point strong enough.

"I am Liz. And _my_ heart over there is Charlotte. I don't want to take up any more of your time Nicky and Joe, so I will go and help her find the right tomato. She always takes so long!" 

"Good. Because Andy just texted us. Nile is being increasingly annoying about her hunger. Grab the soup so we can go, amoré mio." Joe said softly.

The woman walked away, Nicky grabbed the soup, and they walked home, whispering sweet words in Italian to each other.

When they got back to the safe house Andy and Nile were confused as to why they were so happy. They wouldn't say why, as they believed it was not their story to tell. Nicky would never forget that day, or the face of Liz.

When he sat in bed at night, he thought of her and how scared and sad she must've been her whole life. He was glad that he had been able to get past the predjudices of the world and let himself love Joe. He would shoo the thoughts of that away and snuggle more into Joe's arms, softly falling asleep, secure, safe, and more loved than he could dream of. He was happy, and he hoped that she ended up happy too.


End file.
